[spoilers]Commodore is Darius II of the HRE, now with less excuse.

[Commodore]

So something happened. From the banter thread it looks like Yuri was trying to go through Gaspar to hit me, but Gaspar in his paranoia slew the stack. Given this border is freaking well-fortified, anything Gaspar used I could have matched. And oh by the way, those will be Theocracy cataphracts in...3 turns.



The murder was near Caldeum. I need those walls now, and a castle soon.



I'm upping my EP on Ichabod, should get city vision soon. It'll be depressing, I'm sure. Dave, beeline those pikes.



Riffington is about to blow up as capital, too! Soon, lads, soon.



Oh, also, tall empire ho!

[Ceiliazul]

So something happened. From the banter thread it looks like Yuri was trying to go through Gaspar to hit me, but Gaspar in his paranoia slew the stack.

Hooray for no diplo! Hooray for paranoia! Now just a few more turns of peace...

[spacetyrantxenu]

I wish I could read Gaspar's thread to see what that was about.

[Commodore]

I wish I could read Gaspar's thread to see what that was about.

Well, I can hazard a guess, given my knowledge of personalities, banter positions, and who posted, plus the emptyish city:

Yuri sends some of his freed-up rabble north to near Caldeum.

Noble: "This is illogical. Let us punish his illogic with efficient extermination."

Lewwyn: "Engaged now! Blood blood blood."

Gaspar: "Come on, now making peace with Ichabod makes sense given he's not ever close to winning, but really Yuri? Us? Commodore is evil and a towering threat to win unless he is dogpiled immediately."

Stack is murderized with extreme force. (I figure this because average power didn't go down too much, so not a lot of blood on both sides, but I'm now second in power, so Yuri got hurt badly)

Noble: "Wonderful to see illogic destroyed. Now back to hating Commodore."

Thoth: " something youtube"

Lewwyn: "Rar!"

Gaspar: "Despair, we're so doomed."

[Merovech]

Am I allowed to acknowledge how close that is?

[Mardoc]

Am I allowed to acknowledge how close that is?

Nope. :neenernee

But Commodore, might I suggest you link that post somewhere? Somewhere that Gaspar, Lewwyn, and Noble might be able to find easily when the game is over? (Thoth can find his way over here on his own).

[Thoth]

Well, I can hazard a guess, given my knowledge of personalities, banter positions, and who posted, plus the emptyish city:

Yuri sends some of his freed-up rabble north to near Caldeum.

Noble: "This is illogical. Let us punish his illogic with efficient extermination."

Lewwyn: "Engaged now! Blood blood blood."

Gaspar: "Come on, now making peace with Ichabod makes sense given he's not ever close to winning, but really Yuri? Us? Commodore is evil and a towering threat to win unless he is dogpiled immediately."

Stack is murderized with extreme force. (I figure this because average power didn't go down too much, so not a lot of blood on both sides, but I'm now second in power, so Yuri got hurt badly)

Noble: "Wonderful to see illogic destroyed. Now back to hating Commodore."

Thoth: " something youtube"

Lewwyn: "Rar!"

Gaspar: "Despair, we're so doomed."

ROTFLMGDAO

[Commodore]

Okay, Nico, are you happy now? This fishing village is decidedly in the "will be useful in twenty turns if we survive" bracket. Please note, I'm not placing any serious bets down on that bracket. Crap is about to go down.



I am kind of sure that the cataphract pain train will be coming down on Dave, but there are some definite attendant worries even so. Kusari we're already discussed; it will be sad but the GTH plan for that dangler is to die on the vine, taking as much down with it as possible. Scarier is if Palaven falls...Sasha is on a hill, but a core city I really don't want to lose. Even worse is poor Sam, that's my only iron right there. At least Dave seems to be beelining Engineering with max Caste power.



Our strength is GNP and a big population, but such resources aren't infinite, and drawing on the later hurts the former badly. Pushing the GNP this high has also made a real dent in my MFG. Universal Suffrage, alas, is a million miles away. As is Police State. At least, mostly.



Our problem is that we have two huge threats incoming, and the toolkit is pretty stretched to deal with both.

South and east, we have incoming cataphracts, which will most likely go through Dave like a knife through hot butter. It's not enough to stop them, if Dave starts to fall, what is really needed is to snap up a buffer zone for ourselves. Tuchanka, Thessia, and the Citadel ideally...which would enable, with the Pyramids, PS or US civics. Police State in particular would be huge if I'm trading blows with the SoZ-equipped Ichabod.

We're the HRE. A practical solution to this would be to build up a big load of landsknechts and roll southward, which is the only way I'm keeping anything down there: pikes aren't perfect, but they certainly stand toe-to-toe with 'phracts. Using galleys to supply "my side" of the coast with reinforcements and harrying troops, this also has the appeal of fighting the big bads down in France rather than in poor squished (read: no defensive depth at all) Holy Rome. One other side advantage of Engineering is allowing castles, which can do wonders protecting those strong-points from 'phracts.

Unfortunately, I'm seeing increasing signs of hostility from the north, and Lewwyn's activity level has increased. From PB4 Lewwyn knows darned well how insanely good CKNs can be if they get in the first punch. Now, obviously, the solution is to punch first, but they counter landsknechts just as hard as normal pikes. So to the north, we need knights and muskets, ideally, and given activity levels, sooner rather than later. Even if we can defend, though, once a sufficient force of CKNs is amassed

Now there is one lovely, lovely unit that solves all our problems: Rifles. First time you can comfortably get odds on 'phracts, also will just murder any other medieval crap in China (although still they would suck to invade). The trouble is, as world-best as the GNP around here is going to be for the next dozen turns, rifles need:
Guilds->Gunpowder->Paper->Banking->Printing Press->Replaceable Parts->Rifling. Tack on Construction->Engineering if we need pikes, although if we need them we're probably doomed anyway. That's...a lot of beakers. And no matter what, I actually am going to tack on one more requirement.


The plan is to get Nationalism, rush the Taj. Once that age is golden, swap to Bureaucracy/Pacifism, staying in HR and Slavery. Everywhere gets a barracks, hopefully three more Great People get set up, start heading up the Guilds-Gunpowder line at least.

Once the GA is winding down, swap to Nationhood/Theocracy. That means Theology must be slipped in there somewhere. This is the sign that shit's getting real: Draftee muskets will be C1 or CG1, and knights/LKs/catapults rolling off the lines get double-promos. With a saved Great Person fire off another GA at least. I'll be trying to force a merchant, hard without Caste, but if I manage that he'll try is luck with a cash bomb, but a Banking bulb certainly won't go amiss, or if I'm further along, bulbing Economics to get a free GM just makes sense. If Gaspar's been tardy with pikes, smack him down, otherwise, try to maintain the land we have and pressure Dave down there.


Happiness will be an issue. When saving gold if there is enough overflow to manage it Compass and Optics can be picked up on the sly to hook whales and hopefully also get a caravel in the water to circumnavigate. If I'm going to be relying on the Colossus like this, I need fast ironclads...and you better believe the Steel line is next target, Liberalism teched only if it is feasible and can slingshot Steel or something equally valuable. The endgame is Railroad and then SciMethod (via Chemistry, remember, not Astronomy) -> Combustion for transports to wreck havoc and conquer the world.


So. How's that for a plan?

[Commodore]

One final note that comes to me while talking with Brick. I could be totally wrong here, Ichabod and Gaspar could both decide to attack Yuri and bog each other down in the quagmire of Turkey. Pigs might also fly. But in even the most optimistic of cases, rifles need to come online post-haste. If for whatever reason I do manage a reprieve, Music -> Military Tradition isn't all that many beakers. Cavs rock the world when nobody else has rifling, and only Ichabod would be anywhere close to rifles by that point.

[Commodore]

Hum. So post funny thing about team Gaspar, get loads of chuckles. Post a far-reaching tech plan that promises at least highly entertaining BLOOD, and not even my dedlurkers weigh in. Ah well. Speaking of blood, Mr. Yuri might be sending this eight-pack our way. If he does, yum. Nothing but sweet sweet XP.



Anyway. Welcome to 710AD, and a new era in Holy Rome! Ending turn finishes Nationalism, which will mean a great deal of security indeed once draftees can be given guns. Riffington and The Bun are about to swap places, with the new capital about to get an Academy. Oasis will build a Taj Mahal next turn, and then we'll at last see what this tiny empire can really do.



Let's own some invaders.